The inland northern part of the Karnataka State abounds in varieties of freshwater bodies such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, nerennial and seasonal ponds, stagnant pools etc and contributes to a subsistence level freshwater prawn fishery locally. However, practically no information was available on these prawns. As such, the present work on the freshwater prawns was undertaken. The study is based mainly on the material collected in and around Dharwad (Dharwad District) in the jurisdiction of the Karnatak University where most of work was carried out though material was also obtained from other areas such as Kadra (North Kanara or Uttara Kannada District), Karkala (South Kanara or Dakshina Kannada District), Khanapur (Belgaum District), Gulbarga (Gulbarga District) and Bangalore (Bangalore District) representing the three natural geographical regions viz. coastal strip, Sahyadris or Western Ghats and Deccan plateau of the Karnataka State (latitudes 11 to 18 North and longitudes 74 to 78 East).